Imaginary Indians:
Native Americans in the Media

"For over a hundred years, Westerns and documentaries have shaped the public's perception of Native people. The wise elder (Little Big Man); the drunk (Tom Sawyer); the Indian princess (Pocahontas); the loyal sidekick (Tonto)—these images have become engrained in the consciousness of every North American." (Media Awareness Network 2010)

Akin to the representation of other minority groups, American media largely presents Native Americans as overly generalized stereotypes that ignore the diversity of Native nations, cultures, and identities. Because of the pervasiveness of media, even the most subtle stereotypes, presented in everything from movies to advertising, reinforce inaccurate, oversimplified, and potentially harmful understandings of Native Americans today.

The most common representation of Native Americans in modern media suggests American Indians as vanishing or as an imaginary thing of the past. Though Twilight has garnered many fans for a contemporary, somewhat glamorized depiction of the living Quileute through the shirtless wolf-pack boys, the series still categorizes the Quileute as imaginary werewolves rather than as real people.

"All vestiges of truth—and thereby of intercultural understanding—give way here before the onslaught of movieland's mythic creation" (Churchill, 237).

Though not Quileute, Native American actors play the wolf pack in Twilight.
(Image: Summit Entertainment)